Shades in Blue
by scribblemyname
Summary: Shades of meaning and moments of significance between Erik and Raven. A series of drabbles, mostly post First Class.
1. Chapter 1

**Shades in Blue**

**Story Summary: **Shades of meaning and moments of significance between Erik and Raven. A series of drabbles.

**Canonical Notes: **Accepts all movieverse as canon, starting from _First Class_.

**Author's Note:** Inspired by **mrstater**. I _still_ love your Raven and Erik most of all.

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><p><strong>1. Princess<strong>

When Erik first meets Raven, she is her brother's princess. Charles would give his life to keep her safe and happy and give her everything to make her own life pleasant and secure. Erik is pleased and surprised. She is a mutant, after all.

Then he sees her skin. His pleasure turns to fury.

No princess so beautiful and strong should ever have to hide herself, the _real_ Raven is locked away like Rapunzel. Erik would give his life to keep her safe and happy and give her a world in which blue is the most beautiful color of all.

**2. Perfection**

He thinks her rather pretty, lying there under his covers. She is fresh and young—_and his friend's baby sister_. He makes himself turn away.

"Maybe in a few years."

He thinks her beautiful, lying there under his covers, engoldened and matured. She is the mistress of illusion, her own gift from nature.

"I prefer the real Raven."

"The _real_ Raven."

He thinks her stunning, lying there under his covers in her true form at last. Fiery red and radiant blue with vibrant golden-yellow eyes. He thinks he could stare at her forever. Finally, word and thought are one.

"Perfection."

**3. Predator**

"Why did you accept them?" Raven asks in a pleasant aftermath on their bed. Dusk darkens her blue to something barely visible. "Tempest, Riptide, Azazel... They were with _Shaw_?"

Erik runs one finger down her arm. She shudders.

"They are minions, Mystique. They need someone to follow." He pauses. "They will follow _us_."

She catches his meaning. She is _not _a minion. "And Emma?" she adds languidly.

Erik shrugs. "We need a telepath, and I know that you can handle her."

Raven's golden eyes narrow, then gleam as she understands his intent. She looks exactly like a tigress. His tigress.

**4. Pride**

"Charles has invited me to return and teach at his school," Erik tells her. A small, amused smile plays about his lips. "Tactics and World History."

Mystique considers this. They suit.

"Would you like to come with me?" Erik asks quietly, cautious.

She thinks of little blue girls on swings and little boys laughing in her mind. She thinks of teenagers fighting, of skin turning fair and hair turning gold. She thinks of hiding—_I want you safe_, Charles' voice whispering in her mind until it becomes her own. She thinks of the beach and broken promises.

She says, "No."

**5. Parent**

Mystique takes up the reins of the Brotherhood. She is surprised at how well leadership suits her.

She is a queen and not a pampered princess. (Even Emma admits the title suits her. "The Black Queen, not the White." "I am Blue." _Always_, perfect and unique.)

She is beautiful and mutant. The young ones longing for the freedom to _be_ come openly. (Hank told her she never would be considered beautiful.)

She is mother of the Brotherhood, birthing a world in which they are _free_. (Freedom is not _safe_. She never told Erik, she's always wanted to be a mother.)

**6. Perspective**

There is a fine line between Shaw and Erik. Erik is seeking to prevent a mutant holocaust; Mystique is unwilling to start another human one.

A long look at the long picture (Emma's conversation is useful in this, as well), and she knows that the creation of a strong new race cannot be built on the destruction of another. If all her Brotherhood learn is hate, they will not be able to remain when there is nothing left to hate.

She takes time to instill this while she waits for Erik's return. She will not fail who he will become.

**7. Peer**

Erik finds himself without peer in the mansion, except for Charles. They are wary and cautious around each other, but there is comfort here and familiarity in a mind that works on par with his own. He sees Raven's keen intelligence reflected in Charles' brilliance and charm and remembers once more they are siblings.

But the longer he stays, the more he finds Charles' reasoning invading his own, molding him closer or repelling him further. His respect for Raven grows when he understands the force that shaped her into a woman. He never thought he could miss her so much.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:** So this is the second and final half of these drabbles. Apologies they took me forever to get out and done. I hope you enjoy them.

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><p><strong>8. Promiscuity<strong>

Raven knows that sometimes Erik likes to get away from the mansion and from the everlasting chess game he and Charles have embarked upon. She knows that he eats lunch with a woman—Magda—with laughing eyes and an open mind.

Erik knows that Raven sometimes likes to get away from the pressures of managing the Brotherhood and uses Azazel's teleportation to visit other countries and out-of-the-way hotels. Neither of them is much concerned if she also uses Azazel's other gifts.

He tells himself they are comrades, that their relationship should be built upon firmer ground than lust or love.

**9. Patriot**

It's an odd juxtaposition: loyalty to nation or to biology. Charles makes a point of declaring loyal citizenship for himself and his students. Erik tends to hold his tongue on the matter.

Raven deals with it in the trenches: her recruits and the young people aching with righteous rebellion. She doesn't tell them what to believe—she's had enough of that from others to last her lifetime.

Instead she lays out a reproduction of the Declaration with key phrases circled in red. _All men are created equal. …life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness._ That is what she is fighting for.

**10. Pregnant**

Their indiscretions are simultaneous, which at least eases the conflicting feelings having children could evoke. Neither of them is particularly ready to commit their own children to war, so perhaps it is best that they do not share them.

Raven takes an assignment in Germany, leaving Angel in charge and staying contact with Emma, who knows the real reason for six months abroad is the impending birth of a blue-skinned baby boy. Erik gives his twins into the care of friends when their mother dies in childbirth.

Perhaps they should care that they didn't have their family together. They don't.

**11. Partner**

It shouldn't be grief that turns Erik back from Charles once again, but Magda's loss hit him harder than he expected, and so he returns to the one woman he can hope for comfort from. She takes one look at him and draws him into her arms with more softness than his tigress has had in a long time.

They're in a war. It's better this way.

Reconciling is simpler than he even expected, sweet to find that Raven has truly grown up and still cares for him as much as if she hadn't.

They share reports. They make love.

**12. Preparation**

In his absence, Raven has made a lot of plans and done a lot of preparation, turning the Brotherhood into a cohesive body with a working hierarchy and safehouses in twenty-two countries.

"Those can also be used as bases of operation," she points out matter-of-factly while Erik listens and rubs her back. She's spread out the map on his bed. "We have at least one mutant at each location who is conversant with applicable laws for the area."

"You've planned ahead," Erik says, evaluating. He hadn't expected this Charles-like side to her.

"Wars don't last forever." Raven shrugs. "They're _won."_

**13. Patron**

Erik takes time to meet with the new recruits, quickly assessing each one and pleased to see Raven has used his criteria for building the Brotherhood. She has assets, visionaries, rebels with a cause, and minions. And… artists.

"This is hardly the Renaissance," he points out to her when she shows him a strange sculpture built from a mutant's extraordinary skill with controlling wood.

Raven laughs and tells him to think ahead. "We must give them something to fight for." She taps the wood knowingly. "We must have plowshares to beat into swords."

Fighting for freedom, not just against tyranny.

**14. Promise**

Erik is content with her vision of a future, one where mutants are superior perhaps, but one where they have common goals, ideas, dreams beyond that of mere survival.

Charles is content to build his own vision of the future, where one day mutants and humans are equal, where words triumph over the implements of war.

Raven hands Erik the reins again. She has never cared more for power than for influence. The powerful force their will on others; the will of the influential is courted. And they wonder why she calls herself Mystique.

Raven—mutant, proud—is not content.

_~ fin ~_


End file.
